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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Halloween - A Night to Torment your Children

Danny was not happy at being dressed up as Hedwig from Harry Potter, but the tail was just so cute!

Aah, boxes! With no armholes! I'm the cheese!

Trick-or-Treating. Eating candy. Little changes. Although I do remember that when I was young and you went trick-or-treating it was always on Halloween. None of this crap where the cities designate a day of the weekend to trick-or-treat so it doesn't interfere with school. Nope. And teachers that gave homework on Halloween were just plain wrong. Most kids wouldn't do it anyway. Although I was the kid that would trick-or-treat and then obsess until I got my homework done.

Ben just wasn't feeling the love that night

I also remember that when you went to a door you would knock, say "Trick-or-Treat", and then you would have to tell a joke. Was that just a Hazleton, Pennsylvania thing or did other people do that too? And it was trick-OR-treating. Sometimes you got that house where the whole "treat" was the spooky haunted house they would put on. Yeah, as little kids they were the ones to avoid if you were on a hunt-and-kill candy mission, but I have to admit that some were pretty cool too.

And if you wanted trick-or-treaters you would put your porch light on and turn it off if you ran out of candy or didn't want to be bothered. Today, kids just bang on everyone's door, whether their lights are on or off. And parents encourage it! (Boy do I sound like a grumpy old fart or what!?!?)

Trick-or-treating could be an expensive thing when you're pressed for money. It's great to go out and get the free treats, but sometimes getting the costume wasn't so easy. We were lucky. My mom was incredibly crafty...after all she was an art major in college! Homemade costumes! I'm sure some kids didn't like them. We did.

Trick-or-treating in Army barracks

When you're really little though you don't have much say as to what you're going to be. You are at the mercy of your parents. I have to say that as an adult with two little boys, I do enjoy getting (and sometimes making) costumes of their choice, but when they were little I loved sticking them in what I wanted to dress them up as! One of the benefits of having kids!

Stop complaining! I survived my childhood and now I get to torment you! When you have kids, you can torment them, now let's get some candy!